60 seconds with Simoco's Mike Norfield

Mike Norfield, Simoco Wireless Solutions' Group CEO, talks about his career in the two-way radio industry

How do you spend most of your time at work?

I spend a lot of time travelling, as I feel it’s important to meet with customers and staff from across all our operations as often as possible. At Simoco we’re driven by a consultative approach; you can’t create a business with that ethos if you’re not following it through with regular face-to-face time.

What’s the one gadget that you can’t live without?

It would have to be my smartphone. It keeps me connected to everyone and everything.

Describe your most unforgettable project.

I’m especially proud of our work for Western Power Distribution. It’s a UK utilities organisation with nearly eight million customers. We started off providing just voice communication but have gradually shifted towards integrating voice and data networks.

What advice would you give to a young radio engineer who’s starting their first job in the industry?

Expose yourself to as many different technologies as possible. We live in an era of integration, and increasingly organisations are looking to pull together different systems into unified communications infrastructures. It’s not enough to be a specialist in a highly specific type of hardware or software any more.